Multiple Overdoses Lead to Nuisance Closure

Posted: 09/27/2018

Prosecutors and investigators on the Drug Related Death Task Force have closed a residence that has been the scene of several overdoses and one overdose fatality. 118 East Inskip Drive was closed today by order of Judge Bob McGee under the state nuisance law.

According to a petition filed by General Allen, the residence has been the scene of twenty-three calls for service within the past eighteen months. Most of those calls have been related to drug overdoses or drug dealing occurring at the residence. Neighbors have reported people overdosing in the front yard and driveway of the residence. They have observed people stumbling out of the residence and overdosing down the street. Neighbors watched from their homes as people at the residence “tweaked” in the front yard and foamed at the mouth. In one such overdose call, first responders were unable to revive the overdose victim, who ultimately perished. When the residence was padlocked last night, neighbors expressed how thankful and relieved they were to see the house closed.

The Drug Related Death Task Force is a multi-agency investigation and prosecution team that examines overdoses that occur in this jurisdiction as a means to combat the opiate epidemic. Founded this year under the direction of the Appalachia High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (AHIDTA), the task force consists of prosecutors and coordinators from the Knox County District Attorney General’s Office, investigators from the Knoxville Police Department, the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, and the Drug Enforcement Administration, medical examiners and investigators from the Knox County Regional Forensic Center, and intelligence analysts from AHIDTA. The goal of the task force is to decrease overdoses by holding drug dealers accountable when their drug trafficking leads to overdose deaths and by gaining intelligence about the opiate epidemic that can be used by member agencies and others to fight this ever-increasing problem.

This nuisance injunction marks the fifty-sixth closure by the District Attorney’s Office and Knoxville Police Department in their ongoing collaboration to make neighborhoods safer from the activities that affect the safety and quality of life of residents in this community.